CAPTIVE (The Survival Race, book 1) - CHAPTER 45

In last week's episode, Max fought Red Beard, gaining the attention of the poachers who then discovered his sword and confiscated it. This, understandably, upset Addy. But by the chapter's end, she snuggled into Max's warm body and fell asleep, knowing he'd protect her and Noah. 

 

An abducted cop and a gladiator prisoner must learn to trust each other with their lives…and their hearts…to escape their alien captors.    

 

Catch up reading on CAPTIVE here for free: Chapter 1  Ch2  Ch3  Ch4  Ch5  Ch6  Ch7  Ch8  Ch 9  Chs10&11  Ch12  Ch13  Ch14  Ch15  Ch16  Ch17  Ch18  Ch19  Ch20  Ch21  Ch22  Chs23&24  Chs25&26  Ch27  Ch28  Ch29  Ch 30  Chs31&32  Chs33&34  Ch35  Ch36  Ch37  Ch38  Chs39&40  Chs41&42  Ch43  Ch44 

 

CAPTIVE

Chapter Forty-Five

 

She woke to the fresh, dewy scent of morning, and a bound man hanging in a tree.

Was this what Red Beard had meant by suspension? Were criminals hung in trees until taken by death, wild animals, or poachers, whichever came first? The Hyboreans retrieved the man.

“Are you going to fight him, too?” she whispered to Max.

He yawned and stretched his arms. “If need be.”

“Why don’t you sniff each other’s genitals instead?”

He smirked. “Actually, the alpha wolf does the sniffing; the beta wolves roll over and allow it, but I’ll be damned if I’ll do either.”

The cage opened and a Hyborean dropped the man—unbound—inside, feet first. He fell in a heap on the floor.

“Did the poachers really think it necessary to tranquilize him? He was tied up and hanging in a tree for Pete’s sake. It’s not like he could have gotten away.”

As soon as the vehicle started moving, the newcomer jumped to his feet with fists on his hips and chest puffed out in a Superman pose. He had dark olive skin, dark brown hair with a peppering of gray, and striking blue eyes. “Nobody fear. I’m here to rescue you.”

Both Max and Red Beard relaxed back against the bars they had been leaning on, an apparent indication neither thought the newcomer a threat to their alpha status—the winner of that honor remained a mystery. To avoid another rumble in the cell, she didn’t dare ask.

Red Beard plucked grapes from the bunch he received for breakfast. “Rescue us. Where did this idiot come from?”

Max looked the new guy over as if trying to place him. “You look familiar. Have I killed you before?”

Nice conversation starter, Max.

“I am an HGC agent. I’ve been cracking down on human hunting and have apprehended and arrested twenty-nine poachers this year alone.”

“You’ve arrested Hyboreans?” Max sounded doubtful. You could tell he thought the guy was loony.

“Well, no. I didn’t do the arresting.”

Red Beard spat a grape seed through the bars. “What did you do?”

“I was the bait for the sting operation.”

“Congratulations,” Max said. “You make a hell of a night crawler. These Hyboreans fell for you hook, line, and sinker, huh?”

“Are you mocking me, sir?”

“Sorry, pal. I find it hard to believe you’re anything but a crook suspended for some offense.”

“I told you I work for the HGC. Sometimes I roam loose in an area near suspected poachers. Sometimes I’m suspended. Either way, it’s not long before I’m captured.”

“What’s HGC?” Addy asked.

“Human Gaming Commission, ma’am. I protect human wildlife from the black market.”

“What about captive humans? Do you protect them?”

“That’s not my duty, ma’am.”

“Not your job, huh?” She turned to Max while poking a thumb in the agent’s direction. “Sounds like he worked for the United States government before his abduction.”

“Earthling poaching is illegal, ma’am. No one has been taken from that planet in fifteen years.”

“Hate to burst your bubble, but that’s so not true.”

“Yes, it is. I should know. I was instrumental in the undercover op that stopped poaching to that little planet for good.” Puffing out his chest, his white shirt pulled tight over his muscles. Genetics didn’t endow him with a huge frame like Max or even Red Beard. Still, for a smaller man, he appeared nicely cut. “By getting myself captured along with some Earthlings, my master had evidence that interplanetary poaching existed.”

His eyes narrowed at their cellmate as if trying to place a familiar face. “What’s your name?”

“Cyrus.”

“Son of a bitch.” Max’s tone sent a chill through the cage. His eyes smoldered, as if embers within him were burning dangerously hot below the surface and required a slight breeze to set them ablaze. “You.” He shot to his feet, grabbed Cyrus by the throat, and threw him up against the bars.

“Max!”

“You’re the lost hiker. Except you weren’t lost. You knew the fucking poachers were on the mountain, and you lured them into our camp, you bastard. You made us the fucking bait!”

“It was the only way to prove Earthling poaching,” Cyrus rasped out, trying to pry Max’s hands off his throat.

“Where was your little band of government agent Hyboreans when they saw us getting shot with tranquilizers? Why didn’t they arrest the poachers then? Why!” Max thrust Cyrus’s head into the cell bars again.

“If they did, others would have taken their place,” he choked out in a high-pitched voice. “They needed to track us to the black market and shut down the operation from the top.” His words were barely understandable, his face red.

Recalling the ice cavern and Max’s powerful hand around her own neck, cutting off her circulation, she rubbed her throat in sympathy and fear for Cyrus’s life. “Stop it. He’s here to help us.”

“Why didn’t he help me then? Why didn’t he help my brother or my cousin or the eighty other men in those cages?” His contempt and hate were greater than anything she had witnessed before. Squeezing harder, Cyrus’s face turned purple and his fingers slipped from Max’s. His eyes drooped like on the verge of sleep, or death.

“Max, you’re killing him!”

“I know.” Her gladiator’s icy tone and evil grin set her hair standing on end. He was losing control over the beast raging inside. If he killed this man, he would kill their last hope of escape. Then afterward, when the beast calmed and he realized the consequences of his hatred, he would withdraw deeper than ever inside his bitter cave.

If Cyrus died, Max the man would, too.

“Let go of the beast!”

Max glanced over his shoulder. His gaze locked on hers, and she knew he saw himself through her eyes. He understood what she meant. His hands opened.

Cyrus slumped to the floor.

Max turned his back on the HGC agent and Red Beard, and held his hands in front of him, watching them shake. He’d scared himself with his loss of control.

She moved past him, crouched next to Cyrus, and made sure he was breathing. His eye lids fluttered open. “He’s coming around.”

Cyrus jumped up, nearly knocking her over, and imitated the Superman pose. “Fear not,” he rasped. “I’m here to rescue you.”

She met Max’s gaze with a didn’t-we-already-go-through-this expression. She was beginning to think he was right—this guy was loony.

“Cyrus? Are you okay?”

Cyrus stumbled backward and leaned against the cage bars, rubbing his temple with one hand and throat with the other. He eased himself onto the floor, glancing from Max to Red Beard—who sat watching with mild interest—to her until recognition dawned on his face. “I blacked out.”

“I know. If it makes you feel better, Max has that effect on a lot of people.” She cast Max a contemptuous look, but it was wasted on his back. He stood rigid, watching the passing flora through the cage bars. She knew he wasn’t interested in the scenery. He was trying to calm himself and gain composure without appearing weak. The man in him was trying to tame the beast.

He was better off alone for the moment.

“I’ll get you some water, Cyrus.” On the way to retrieve the canteen, Addy checked on Noah asleep in his makeshift bed. He appeared plump and healthy and peaceful. Her heart swelled. She returned with the canteen, crouched next to Cyrus, and waited until he finished drinking before asking, “Can you really get us out of here?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Sit tight and wait. My master and his agents will move in, capture the poachers, and free us.”

“Where are they now?”

“I couldn’t say. They don’t hang around while I’m suspended. Hang around. Get it?” Laughing at his own joke, the weathered lines around his eyes creased and his Superman-blue irises sparkled.

“Yeah, I get it. I’m not in a laughing mood right now.” Not with Max’s back still turned. She wanted to go to him but feared the others might take that as a sign of weakness and start trouble again. Stupid alpha dominance games.

“Don’t worry, ma’am—”

“It’s Addy.” She extended her hand.

He took it, but instead of shaking it, he covered it with his other hand. Apparently no one on this planet practiced the custom of a handshake. “Don’t worry, Addy. I’ve been captured over fifty times, and every time my master has come through.”

“Except when they stole eighty-three people from Earth.” Max’s voice came off as gruff instead of pissed, indicating he was starting to relax. He glanced over his shoulder, and his gaze went straight to their hands. His eyes flared with anger and something else. Could it be jealousy?

She pulled her hand free. “If your master doesn’t stick around to watch the poachers, how does he know if you’ve been captured? How does he know where you’ve been taken?”

“By this.” Cyrus peeled off his shirt, confirming her earlier suspicions about his well-cut, wiry physique.

Max strode over with murder in his eyes.

Oblivious, Cyrus turned his back. “Implanted behind my shoulder blade is a tracking device.”

Before she could stand up to run interference, Max stopped short. She sighed her relief.

“See the bump?” Cyrus said. “Touch it. Go ahead.”

She leaned in. Max crouched down. Red Beard, who had lost interest in the conversation almost from the start, crawled over to inspect the small bump on Cyrus’s back.

Gently, so as not to hurt him, Addy ran a finger over the little bean under the skin. “It’s true.” She smiled up at Max. He wasn’t smiling back, but he wasn’t scowling anymore, either. “We’re going to be rescued.”

Cyrus turned to face her again, his blue eyes shining bright. Why hadn’t she noticed before how attractive he was? Though he had a young boy-next-door face, his short brown hair had a few strands of gray peppered in it. Maybe he was about forty. “All we have to do is wait for my master.”

“How long?”

“Should be some time tonight.”

Like a geyser releasing its built-up pressure, elation erupted inside. They would be freed. She threw her arms around Cyrus, knocking him over, landing on top of him.

“Fickle bitch, isn’t she?” said Red Beard between snorts.

Sitting up quickly, she shot him a dirty look, mostly to avoid seeing Max’s expression. His voice boomed. “What will the HGC do with us?”

All eyes turned to Cyrus.

“First, they’ll check the database of lost and missing humans to get you back home. If you’re not listed, they’ll find your previous owner by matching your markers to your records on file.” Her confusion must have shown on her face because he explained that markers included things like coloring, familial birthmarks, and genetically altered abilities. Max’s eyesight must have fallen under the latter category. “If that doesn’t work, they can match your DNA.”

“What if you don’t have records? Say you were born in the Tuniit village or in the wildlife refuge?” Or on an umiak.

“Tuniit’s brand their humans. They’re easily returned. Everyone else is recorded and put up for adoption.”

Duncan had said she’d been tracked all her life, therefore, she likely had records. Noah didn’t. She’d be returned to Ferly Mor, and he’d be put up for adoption. That was out of the question. What of Max? He’d said he was without an owner. Where would he go? “What about setting us free in the refuge?”

“Oh no,” Cyrus said as if that were an incredibly insane idea. “The Hyboreans never go there.”

“Why not?”

“It makes them crazy.” It was Red Beard. “I saw it happen. A Hyborean chased me through the river once, but when he grabbed me on the bank of the refuge, he let go and dropped to the ground. He covered his temples and thrashed around and screamed like no beast I ever heard. Well, seeing as how they’re telepathic, you know what I mean. It scared the piss out of me. He tried to get up and turn back, but he staggered and stumbled like a drunkard, fell into the river, and got swept into the rapids.”

Memories of being pummeled by the rapids on Klamath River flooded her mind. She had died then…for the first time. “What happened to the Hyborean?”

“Ultimortem,” Cyrus said as fact. “No one can survive the rapids.”

“But what happened to make him go crazy in the first place?”

“The island’s cursed,” Red Beard said. “Except for that one, no Hyborean has ever come into the refuge in the ten years I’ve lived there.”

“It’s not cursed,” said Cyrus. “It’s electromagnetic waves. Hyborean brainwaves are different from ours. The electromagnetic pulses in the ground there affect them. They are unable to think, to communicate, to function. That’s why that area has become a wildlife refuge. Humans and other creatures can live there but Hyboreans cannot.”

“Are you telling me they know how to travel a gazillion miles to Earth, yet they can’t step foot into a section of their own planet?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

That was ridiculous. People might not live under Earth’s oceans, but they could travel there in a submarine. “Why don’t they make a machine that allows them to enter the refuge?”

“Think about it, Addy.” Max’s voice sounded relaxed now and void of his earlier anger. “Every piece of Hyborean technology is activated by thought. If their technology runs on the same wavelength they exist on, then all their technology will be affected by the same electromagnetic fields. We already know their equipment is sensitive. That’s why they disable the shock collars inside the exam rooms.”

For the first time since she’d come to this planet, she finally had an advantage. A weapon, really. The Hyboreans couldn’t enter the refuge without risking death. The prospect of emancipation hit her with electrifying excitement. It was as if she had awakened fully, rejuvenated by a rush of adrenaline. “You mean once we cross that river, we’re free? I mean really free? We won’t have to live in fear of the Hyboreans? We won’t have to hide in foxholes when they come looking for us?”

“No fear. No foxholes.” Max’s reply took her breath away, and she sucked in air as if she’d finished a race in first place. Noah wouldn’t grow up living in terror. He’d be protected inside the refuge.

She almost burst with renewed hope and the possibilities of a life in a safe haven. If the other men weren’t there, she’d jump into Max’s arms and kiss him. She had to keep her composure. They weren’t free yet. “Then we have to figure some way out before Cyrus’s master gets here. We are not going back to HuBReC.”

“The next time the vehicle stops, I’ll kick out the cage bar we cut. You and Noah will squeeze through and head southwest toward the river.”

“Yes!” She couldn’t stop herself from jumping up and down. So much for keeping her composure. “We’re almost free.”

Max’s head cocked to the side as he fingered her hair. His green eyes filled with regret and longing.

“What’s wrong?”

“I can’t go with you.”

“What?” Panting, she stepped away from him. “Why not?”

“I don’t fit between the bars.”

#

Oh no. Addy and Noah can escape, but Max can't? What are they going to do? Will she leave without him or stay? Will Max force her to leave him behind? Find out next week in Chapter 46 or read the full story now at your favorite retailers.

K.M. Fawcett

Romance with a rebel heart  

www.kmfawcett.com